308AAE: Individual Project for Logistics and Transport Realisation, Report, CU, Singapore

Executive Summary

This paper explores optimising shipping routes for distribution companies in tropical regions. Maritime shipping enables international trade, so optimising routes promotes efficiency and reduces costs. However, tropical areas pose unique challenges for optimisation, including unpredictable weather, fragile ecosystems, infrastructure limitations, and high expenses.

The paper reviewed relevant literature, which revealed gaps regarding optimising routes in tropical contexts specifically. Research questions examined environmental and logistical/cost factors influencing optimisation decisions. Quantitative analysis tested hypotheses that these elements substantially impact optimisation.

Primary data was gathered through a questionnaire of thirty distribution sector employees across managerial, supervisory, executive, and operations roles. Statistical techniques including chi-square tests, correlation analysis, and descriptive statistics evaluated the results.

The findings reject the null hypotheses at a 0.05 significance level, indicating environmental factors and logistical constraints/costs significantly influence route optimisation choices and outcomes. Correlation coefficients of 0.98 for environment and 0.92 for logistics/costs demonstrate strong positive linear relationships.

Means of 3-4 out of 5 illustrated agreement that environmental and logistical considerations frequently compel routing changes and improvements. Recommendations include investing in weather and emissions monitoring to inform dynamic routing algorithms and using efficient vessel designs. Increasing port infrastructure and optimising inventories also helps overcome logistical bottlenecks.

While the modest sample size limits generalisability, the statistically significant quantitative results provide valuable insights for distribution firms on optimising operations in tropical maritime regions. This research makes key contributions on a practically impactful yet understudied real-world issue.